The Jamaican government has listed 60 beaches across the island that it says provides free access to the public.

It comes against the background of claims circulating online that Jamaicans are being denied access to the country’s beaches, allegations Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says are damaging Jamaica’s reputation and costing the Government money to correct.

READ: Bartlett blasts people making untruthful claims about island’s beach access overseas

“Jamaica’s public bathing beaches provide free access to our sandy coastline for Jamaicans to enjoy, with recognised locations across the island,” the Ministry of Tourism stated in a post on social media Wednesday.

“From swimming and sunbathing to fishing, water sports or simply enjoying the coastline, these public bathing beaches are open to everyone with no entry fee required,” the ministry said.

More than half of the 60 beaches listed by the ministry are on Jamaica’s northern coastline, spanning the parishes of Hanover, St James, Trelawny, St Ann, St Mary, and Portland. They are:

Hanover: Orchard/Old Steamer, Tryall Beach, Bulls Bay, Lances Bay, and Watson Taylor Park;

St James: Sunset Beach, Dead End, Coral Gardens, Success, Greenwood, and Barrett Hall;

Trelawny: Rio Bueno, Flamingo, Halfmoon Bay, and Jacob Taylor/Silver Sands;

St Ann: Priory/Fantasy; Bengal; Cardiff Hall/Flavours; Salem/Sharkies; and Roxborough;

St Mary: Pagee/Frontier, Annotto Bay Beach/Marking Stone, Rio Nuevo and Murdock;

Portland: Hope Bay, St Margaret’s Bay, Innis Bay, Bryan’s Bay, Long Bay, Blue Hole, Drapers; and Winnifred.

Meanwhile, St Elizabeth is the parish with the single most free public beaches on the list, with nine locations, namely Great Bay, Fort Charles, Crane Road/Fullerswood, Frenchman Bay, Font Hill, Calabash Bay, Parottee, Galleon Bay, and Billy’s Bay.

The other southwest parish of Westmoreland has three public beaches, namely Community Beach/Norman Manley Beach Park; Little Bay and Whitehouse.

There are a total of eight free public beaches across the central Jamaica parishes of St Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester. These are as follows:

St Catherine: Port Henderson and Marine Terminal;

Clarendon: Jackson Bay, Farquhar’s and Welcome;

Manchester: Alligator Pond, Hudson Bay Beach/Guts River, and Wards Bay.

In the meantime, seven public beaches were listed in the eastern parish of St Thomas, comprising locations at Lyssons, Prospect, Retreat, Rocky Point, Mezgars Run, South Haven and Coopers Pen.

In the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew, there is one public beach – Copacabana.